O. Henry, the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), was a prolific American short story writer whose collections included Cabbages and Kings, The Four Million, Whirligigs, and The Heart of the West.
Ben Yagoda, editor, is the author or editor of thirteen books, including The B-Side: The Death of Tin Pan Alley and the Rebirth of the Great American Song; About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made; and How to Not Write Bad. His work has been published in The American Scholar, The Atlantic, Esquire, the New York Times Magazine, Slate, and many other publications. A Guggenheim Fellow, he is Professor Emeritus of English and Journalism at the University of Delaware.